Time to make the trip back to the mainland, have been waiting two weeks for a weather window and it finally arrived. The day before I am due to leave I spot a notice at La Paz marina with two people wanting to crew to the mainland. I send them a quick email, we meet in the evening and by 8.00am Helen ( british) and Lars( swede) are waiting with their bikes on the dock. They are currently cycling from Canada to Panama. If you think that is tough, they have also cycled Africa, Australia, south america, china , India. Check out Helens blog............www.helenstakeon.com and Lars www.lostcyclist.com ( click on links on sidebar )
Off we set with Bikes strapped to the stern, a brisk day is ahead of us. We get to the ceralvo channel and the wind is up, 15-20 knots and some seas. however it is on our beam, so we fly. At times doing 9 knots and winds gusting to 28. By 6.00pm we are in the anchorage at Meurtos. During the trip i hooked a big Dorado, probably around 30lbs...........got it to within 15 feet of the boat and it dived and tore out the hook. Spent the night at Meurtos with the intent of leaving the next day, check the weather and decided to stay one extra day. We left in the early hours and had a fabulous sail across, completeing the 190 miles in 28 hours , maintaininmg a speed of 8 knots all the way. Had another big fish on, this time a 200lb plus marlin. I saw him approach the lure and I tried desperately the get the lure out of the water. I did'nt want to hook a marlin. Bang he took the lure and the reel started to spin at an enormous rate, we slowed the boat, I tried to wind on some tension but before I knew it I was quickly running out of 50lb line on the reel and then I managed to slow the reel down by finally increasing the drag.................bang again the the line snapped. The Marlin must have been pretty angry as it leaped clean out pof the water twice and swam off into the distance with all my fishing line and tackle. Lars and Helen were great as crew and decide dthey would like to stay on for the leg tfrom mazatlan to La cruz. We have exchanged a lot of stories about sailing and cycling. Fortunately they are both avid photographers so I have some photo graphic evidence of my catches which got away.
We arrived Mazatlan and stayed a day before setting out again for La Cruz. we decided to stop at Stone island due to some local adverse weather south and will leave on the final leg in the morning.
I need to meet a friend from Portland on Friday at the airport in PV. Julie is coming down for a quick holiday so I need to get to La Cruz ASAP !!!!